Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio

(c. 1485 - August 27, 1576)

Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio (c. 1485 - August 27, 1576), better known as Titian, was the leader of the 16th-century Venetian school of the Italian Renaissance. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno (Veneto), in the Republic of Venice. During his lifetime he was often called Da Cadore, taken from the place of his birth.

Recognized by his contemporaries as "the sun amidst small stars" (recalling the famous final line of Dante's Paradiso), Titian was one of the most versatile of Italian painters, equally adept with portraits and landscapes (two genres that first brought him fame), mythological and religious subjects. His painting methods, particularly in the application and use of color, would exercise a profound influence not only on painters of the Italian Renaissance, but on future generations of Western art.

During the course of his long life Titian's artistic manner changed drastically; however he retained a lifelong interest in colour. His mature works may not contain the vivid, luminous tints of his early pieces, however their loose brushwork and subtlety of polychromatic modulations are without precedent in the history of Western art.